Washington Watch

Without a note of irony, a headline in the popular American daily newspaper USA Today best expressed the perverse tragedy underlying the entire O.J. Simpson affair. The headline, on the front page of the business section, read “O.J. needs ‘miracle’ to save ad career.” The article itself quoted the executive...

Foreign visitors to the U.S. beware: there is a war which is being successfully waged by all levels of the U.S. government with strong support from a powerful and well-organized lobby. It is the war against smoking. This is a relentless campaign, and it has succeeded on a number of...

Caught in the confusion of current events, the Arab American community is facing challenges both to its self-identity and to the direction of its political organizations. This month’s issue of a Washington area Arab American magazine even reports that one Arab American leader is thinking of resigning his position both...

The Republican field of Presidential candidates is more wide open than it has been in many years. Typically, there is at least one candidate who is considered the early favorite for the nomination. But the Republican party today is more divided than it has been in thirty years, and even...

Although the 1994 Senate and Congressional elections are only now beginning, an active discussion is already underway about the 1996 Presidential campaign. Republicans sense that the President is in a somewhat weakened state. Personal problems from the Whitewater real estate deal to his alleged sexual encounter with Paula Jones have...

Palestinian police have entered Gaza and Jericho to the jubilant welcome of Palestinian residents. The transfer of authority having taken place, the first phase of Palestinian self rule is set to begin. The Palestinian National Authority faces difficult responsibilities in the days and months ahead, and it must design and...

For at least the past two decades the mainstream of the U.S. Jewish community operated as a disciplined political force. They were largely unified in their political goals and well-coordinated in their tactics. The three pillars that formed the base around which the major Jewish groups built their consensus were:...

The euphoria that surrounded the White House signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles was nowhere in evidence last week in Cairo at the signing of the Gaza-Jericho interim agreement. There was a heavy dose of realism in the air, a clear and unequivocal sense that the Israelis had squeezed...

As Secretary of State Warren Christopher noted last week, the U.S. Administration adamantly refuses to lift the economic sanctions imposed against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. has taken this stand in the face of pressure from France, Russia, and other allies which have argued that the sanctions...

One of the most unusual elections in recent U.S. history is unfolding this year in the state of Virginia. Virginia is one of the original thirteen colonies that made the United States. Its people are proud of their traditions and their political history. Four of our first five Presidents came...